


Holding Out For a Hero (While Being My Own)

by ThrowMyBonesToTheWolves



Category: Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types
Genre: Brief Mention of Blood, Brief swearing, Competent Jaskier | Dandelion, Feral Jaskier | Dandelion, Jaskier saves the day with song, M/M, because i never get to use it but i love it, but did you really expect anything less?, i didn't delve in deep on the subject lol, like a true hero, made up musicians, no beta we die like renfri, only one has a name, piano's were invented in the 1700s but pfft, vague mentions of soulmates, what are facts anyway
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-20
Updated: 2020-04-20
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:21:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23753770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThrowMyBonesToTheWolves/pseuds/ThrowMyBonesToTheWolves
Summary: Jaskier is kidnapped by a greedy lord, who wants his court to be filled with the most skilled minstrels in the Continent. As it is, he didn't consider the bard's intelligence or his soulmate; not that many would believe Witcher's are capable of having soulmates but then, that's just an advantage isn't it?
Relationships: Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Jaskier | Dandelion
Comments: 20
Kudos: 295





	Holding Out For a Hero (While Being My Own)

**Author's Note:**

> I posted this to my Tumblr last night and figured I may as well post it here too. This song has been fucking haunting me and gave me no choice but to write it out so here we are, lol. I used my last brain cell to write this and it is not beta'd so I apologize for any mistakes and the like. I haven't tried my hand at writing fic in like, five years so this may read a little rough but *shrugs* Constructive criticism is welcome! I may or may not write more for this story or otherwise, we'll see if another song decides to invade my brain.

A faint tugging sensation on his soul mark warned him of his beloved’s approach. 

Warmth spread through his chest as he tipped back his goblet and finished the wine inside it, standing from his resting place at the table set aside for musicians. 

He made his way along the edge of the room to where the piano was being played by Ezio; near the tables reserved for nobles, of course. The soft flow of Ezio’s music blended pleasantly with the low murmur of conversation in the ballroom, continuing even as Jaskier quietly cleared his throat and caught Ezio’s eye. Ezio tilted his head at Jaskier with a silent question in his gaze. Jaskier nodded near imperceptibly and loudly, with his usual theatrics, said, “C minor, put it in C minor.” Faintly, a smirk tugged at the corners of Ezio’s lips as he decidedly did not switch to C minor, but rather G minor; not that most people in the room would notice anyhow, caught up as they were in their own worlds. Their attention began to shift, however, when Jaskier’s voice rose with the new melody.

“Where have all the good men gone?” He crooned, sitting down beside Ezio on the bench and draping himself against the man’s side. “And where are all the gods?” His heavy-lidded gaze turned to the other musicians, who stood at the ready nearby. 

They gazed determinedly back at him. 

“Where’s the street-wise Hercules to fight the rising odds?” He sang to them. Gracefully, he turned around to face the nobles seated behind him, whilst keeping himself carelessly relaxed against the pianist’s side. “Isn’t there a white knight upon a fiery steed?” Nearly every noble met his gaze as his eyes flitted over them, already enraptured with the song. 

He found the man he was looking for without trouble. 

“Late at night, I toss and I turn and I dream of what I need,” Holding the note, he stared intently at the lord responsible for his current state of detainment. 

Suddenly, he stood with a flourish and whipped around to face the musicians again. “Hit it!” He winked, and danced with fast-paced steps towards them to match the rising tempo, grinning at the feeling of their harmonizing vibrating through his chest. 

“I need a hero! I’m holding out for a hero ‘til the end of the night,” He lithely twisted and turned around them, finger-tips just barely brushing their arms and shoulders as he carefully avoided disrupting them. 

“He’s gotta be strong,” From the corner of his eye, Jaskier observed the lord as he stood from his seat. 

“And he’s gotta be fast,” A pleased smirk graced his lips as the displeased lord began to move in his direction.

“And he’s gotta be fresh from the fight.” His soul mark continued to tingle. 

With one last touch to the others, he stepped into the crowd. They parted for him with ease, leaving a trail for the lord to follow. “I need a hero! I’m holding out for a hero ‘til the morning light.” The minstrels’ voices followed him through the room, matching their rhythm perfectly. _‘He wanted the best musicians in the Continent to fill his court’_ Jaskier thought as he sang to the people around him, _‘well, he’s got them.’_

“He’s gotta be sure 

and it’s gotta be soon 

and he’s gotta be larger than life,

larger than life.”

The lord continued his pursuit, quickly following in the bard’s footsteps. Jaskier turned to face him while dancing away, staring him down teasingly. Keeping the lord distracted was paramount, so as to allow Geralt as many advantages as possible. Not that Jaskier couldn’t have managed to escape on his own, but he wasn’t alone in his confinement; the people currently joining him in song were being held against their will as well and they didn’t have the experience or training Jaskier had. As such, he instead put his clever mind to use and schemed with them in the quiet nights during their long, unwilling stay in the lord’s castle. Among the topics discussed during those nights were the hows and whys of everyone’s capture. The lord’s men only managed to grab Jaskier when his path diverged from Geralt’s, the Witcher following rumors of a nesting wyvern on the outskirts of Novigrad while Jaskier made his way to Oxenfurt, intending to partake in a small annual music festival being held within the city. They were supposed to meet at the university two weeks from their parting. But before Jaskier even made it to Oxenfurt, he was overtaken; the night after they parted, he had set up camp in a clearing a fair distance away from the road and was ambushed in his sleep. Despite his training at Oxenfurt, and with Geralt, he didn’t have the means to fight half a dozen men on his own.

“Somewhere after midnight, in my wildest fantasy,” the guards near the entrance to the room began to shift and mutter to one another. Geralt must be within the castle by now; certainly close enough to hear his bard.

“Somewhere just beyond my reach,” The lord’s hand whispered along his arm, a purposeful near-miss on Jaskier’s part. “There's someone reaching back for me.” Geralt had no way of knowing the purpose of his bard’s kidnapping, as there wouldn’t be a ransom or the like sent out. All he could know was his bard hadn’t been in Oxenfurt, as the faint pull of his soul mark would have guided him in a different direction when he neared the city. And once he followed the pull of his mark far enough, he likely would have found the evidence that pointed to where the bard was instead; all his belongings having been left in his camp. Even his lute, as the guards were dim enough to leave it when they dragged him away. Jaskier hadn’t gone without a fight, of course, and had torn a guard’s cloak, leaving the bloodied strip on the off-chance Geralt found his camp, that he might scent it and track him down.

“Racing on the thunder and rising with the heat,” Jaskier spun around the lord, sweeping a hand against the man’s lower back. In response, the lord turned and made to grab Jaskier, only to lose him to the throng of people once more.

“It's gonna take a superman to sweep me off my feet!” He cheekily belted. The familiar buzz of his mark urged him on. He briefly danced with various nobles and servants alike as he passed by them, listening intently for any noises that might be heard over the music but he couldn’t hear anything. 

Yet.

“Up where the mountains meet the heavens above, out where the lightning splits the sea,” He mused to himself as he sang, wondering if Geralt would be amenable to visiting the coast again when this fiasco was sorted out. 

“I could swear there is someone somewhere, watching me.” Geralt watched him often, he wasn’t particularly subtle about it. Not that he really could be, with his heavy golden gaze. But then, Jaskier watched just as often, if not more. Speaking of being watched, there was the lord again, closing in. 

“Through the wind and the chill and the rain and the storm and the flood,” This time, Jaskier let the lord come close enough to grab him but before the man could get a good enough grip to hold him in place, Jaskier placed his hands on the nobleman in turn and pulled him into the dance. The lord tried to speak but Jaskier gleefully sang over him.

“I can feel his approach like a fire in my blood.” Closer and closer, they stepped and twirled and glided toward the doors at the front of the hall, Jaskier leading despite his partner’s attempts to gain control. Taking a moment to catch his breath a bit, he let the repetition of the lyrics wash over him; he was really quite proud of his fellow minstrels for playing the song so wonderfully but then, they weren’t kidnapped for nothing. Ah, the Lord was trying to talk to him again. Too bad Jaskier wasn’t interested in listening. Oh, was a shout he heard? Just as his partner turned to get a better look at the doors, Jaskier spun them around to cut off his view, anticipation flooding him as he continued to sing.

“I need a hero

I'm holding out for a hero 'til the morning light,”

Though it was difficult to tell with all the people in front of them, Jaskier would hazard a guess that they were roughly seven meters away from the doors.

“and he's gotta be sure,”

_‘Come on, my love’_

“And it's gotta be soon,”

_‘Come on’_

“And he's gotta be larger than life,”

As the music hit the scripted lull, the sounds of swords clashing and pained shouts filtered in with more clarity from the front of the hall. The lord paused, his grip on Jaskier loosening as a concerned furrow etched itself into his brow. Just as he drew breath to yell to his guards, Jaskier took his chances and slammed his forehead against the man’s nose. Surrounded by guests as they were, it would take the guards on the outskirts of the room at least a minute or so to reach them. The lord stumbled back with a choked cry, blood dripping from his reddened nose. Gingerly, he placed a hand on the injury and glared at Jaskier in utter fury. Jaskier responded with a nasty grin, ignoring the resulting ache in his head. The beat quickly picked up once more, and without further hesitation, the nobleman lunged at the bard. Clearly, he had grown tired of playing their game of cat and mouse.

Only…

“Oh he's gotta be strong,”

He must not have realized he was the mouse,

“And he's gotta be fast,”

and Jaskier was the cat.

“And he's gotta be fresh from the fight,”

Jaskier smoothly sidestepped the lord and used the man’s momentum against him, grabbing his shoulders and kicking his knees out to force him to the floor. As the guards finally broke through the nobles around him, Jaskier nimbly grabbed the knife he nicked during dinner from his half-buttoned doublet to lay the flat of it firmly against the lord’s throat, ready to slice the vulnerable skin without hesitation.

“I need a hero!”

The guards stilled at the threat to their lord, tensing as the room came to a standstill; quiet gasps and worried murmurs following Jaskier’s somewhat ironic declaration. The fight in the hall past the doors had fallen silent as well. Within moments, they were thrust open to reveal the White Wolf himself, anger rolling off him in near palpable waves. 

“Geralt!” Jaskier breathed, voice heavy with joy and relief. “Fancy meeting you here, eh?” Taking in the view of a man he hadn’t seen in nearly a month, he felt much of his tension melt away as his love stalked closer. With eyes darting between Jaskier, the Witcher, and their lord, the guards soon relented and let Geralt pass them by with their weapons still held at the ready. 

“Jaskier,” growled Geralt, eyes roaming Jaskier’s form for any injury or illness. He wouldn’t find any; the nobleman at his feet, as much of a fucking bastard as he was, kept any and all hands off of what he considered his. Aside from his rough capture and lack of freedom, Jaskier was kept as comfortable as the situation allowed. 

_‘Small mercies’_ the bard thought bitterly.

“Did you find my lute, by chance?” He asked. “I’m afraid these fine gentlemen,” the knife tilted against the lord’s throat, biting a thin red line into it. “didn’t give me leave to pack up. Or talk, really.” 

Geralt ignored the trembling nobleman entirely, for the moment, keeping his gaze glued to his bard instead. He grunted in response and pulled a bloodied scrap of cloth from one of his pockets. Jaskier lit up a bit at the sight, pleased that what little he had been able to do had been of use; though Geralt would have found him either way. They’ll always find each other.

Pulling the knife away with minute care, Jaskier shoved the lord aside in favor of reaching for his Witcher, who received him with absolute relief. Geralt inhaled deeply, desperate to fill his lungs with his bard's scent. "You're okay." He muttered, the assurance grounding him.

Jaskier nuzzled against him in turn. Smirking, he softly asked “Did you like the song, my dear Witcher?” 

Geralt huffed in fond exasperation, embracing Jaskier tighter in response.

**Author's Note:**

> My tumblr is with-souls-made-of-flames btw. I don't often post original content but I do reblog plenty of stuff from the Witcher and many other fandoms; whatever suits my fancy really. V Important Edit: so I totally forgot to note this when I first posted this story but my initial spark of inspiration for even writing a song fic (that it was okay and acceptable, etc) was the fic "All You Wanna Do" by Jaskiers_BrokenLute https://archiveofourown.org/works/23242084 so please, go give that a read!! It is absolutely wonderful and I very much enjoyed it~ Thank you to Jaskiers_BrokenLute for the inspo and their story! :D


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